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The majority of teams that been having financial issues are Championship teams. The Championship standard is too high, mainly because doubling down has got out of control and the difference between NDL and Championship is too big with NDL riders struggling to get Championship teams. The standard of Championship needs lowering, doubling down needs reducing, teams like Poole, Glasgow etc should be in Premiership.

100% to do with the league set up... The team chosen were not good enough by a country mile... Therefore "the leadership" of the sport should have not allowed it... If that was all he could put together then it should have been NDL or nothing.. Letting that team race against teams with up to 3 Div 1 HL's was a ludicrous decision and clearly doomed to fail.. As a leader you have to make very tough decisions sometimes for the greater good.. Speedway desperately needs that level of leadership...

Many a blind man foresaw this at the start of the season.. Yet those who run the sport didnt, which probably speaks volumes.. Putting uncompetitive teams in a league doesnt work for anyone, as history has been shown in many a long year.. Clubs will have paid out thousands hammering the Diamonds and will have no points to show for it.. And the Diamonds would have been no attraction when visiting meaning getting a crowd in would be a harder sell.. There should be clear leadership well before a season starts that decides whether a declared team can run within each league, and either contrive a more equal distribution of talent to make them competitive or only allow them to ride at a lower standard... With teams to be declared well in advance, not being allowed to "thrutch around" in bargain basements to put 7 riders together.. Hopefully the Diamonds can be saved and their die hard fans keep access to the sport, but you do suspect that some clubs will already be trying to cherry pick riders that they will replace their own riders with... All to get into those "Oh so important play offs"... Best wishes to anyone who comes in and takes over.... Let's hope someone does.. And this time they dont find out some serious legacy issues like Grant did...

The worst speedway promoter is a fan!

To be honest if Newcastle Speedway does survive it's got to be at a new venue as i think Brough Park has run its cause. Speedway isn't really welcome there the track doesn't suit the modern bikes and if we are honest we don't see alot of good racing. Although a new set up won't come cheap and it won't be easy to find the right place and get permission due to noise regulations etc.. I know certain places have been looked into. Fingers crossed there is someone else still willing to take it on and create a good race track like Redcar or Workington's new track. Here's hoping.

Feel for the fans....fair play to all those that tried their hardest to keep the club going, whether they did the so called 'right' thing/s or not, at least they had a go!

Very sad to hear the news that the Diamonds have pulled out of the league. I have always enjoyed my trips to Tyneside and particularly to Brough Park. I have now got to cancel my easyJet flight on Sunday from Bristol Airport. I was looking forward to seeing the Pirates taking on the Diamonds and catching up with Keith M and Tsunami . Always had a friendly geordie welcome at Newcastle. My thoughts and prayers are with all the loyal fans. I hope that a consortium can be found to bring this proud club with over 90 years history back on track in 2023.

I guess it all depends on what you do. Whilst you throw around your ignorant comments, many of us are more concerned about losing the club we have supported all our lives.

Yesterday was the funeral of club stalwart Chris Ellis which as expected was very well attended for a celebration of her life. Just wanted to say that Danny king and Ritchie Hawkins attending the lunch time funeral making the effort to come from Peterborough to Ipswich and then back to Peterborough for our meeting. They made me proud and deserve praise for their efforts and we really do have a very special club with fantastic staff and fans. RIP Chris xxx

Easier to make a profit when you don't pay the vat man.

Feeling a bit uncomfortable with people slagging Grant & Co, but hey, every is entitled to their opinion. It was a poisoned chalice from the beginning taking over the club. The tax debt from previous management was the tell tale sign that things were going south for a few years previously for our beloved club. The chances of getting someone in.....I think we all know thats slim, there was hardly a rush for it last season. I hope everyone is at peace with themselves, whether you did the trackwalk and picked up some shale, got your favourite merchandise, photo with your favourite rider.....time to treasure it.

In some positive news for British Speedway, in light of what's happened over in the the north east, it looks like more brilliant progress was made at the weekend by Steve and the team... I now make that only 18 active Speedway clubs in the UK now across all 3 leagues, from a time gone by nearly 20 years ago in the early days of the Comets comeback, the old 'Premier League' had 18 actual teams in the league itself... With the rebirth of the Comets from next season (fingers crossed) hopefully we can add to that number or keep it at that number with the demise of the homeless Monarchs, good times ahead on the north west coast, literally!

Says the man with a clown as his profile pic

The bigger problems aside from making the sport look a total shambles is the impact on other clubs Redcar for example went there, spent a fortune on rider points and will have no corresponding home fixture to help cover this deficit. Any season ticket holder who hasn't seen Newcastle visit their track will have lost out this year. The governing body that accepted this crock pot team into the league should also be accountable for the demise. All that has been achieved is a promotor has made back some of his initial losses and scarpered leaving everyone else to pick up the pieces.

In fairness to Rob Grant, he had to deal with more critical problems in his short stewardship than most businessmen do in a lifetime. If it wasn't for the VAT bombshell which emerged fairly early doors followed shortly by the devastation and massive uncertainty which COVID caused it might have been a completely different story. Call me naive but he came in with a good heart, lots of ideas and the first team he put together looked full of promise but sadly never got the opportunity to ride. Now we've got no speedway at Brough and only beneficiaries will be Berwick and Redcar (and maybe Workington in the not too distant future) for the diehards who need their weekly speedway fix.

The league set-up didn't help, because with the points limit that was chosen they must have known there weren't enough riders to ensure a reasonable distribution. Certain teams must have pushed for the higher points limit to suit their own needs, e.g. three established heat leaders and/or new imports in preference to the Rising Star programme.

We can all talk about what went on in the first year of the takeover with the vat and Covid but that’s not the reason it has come to this, Rob should have walked away last year when he announced it but he saw the crowds and the green eyed monster got the better of him,he put together a poor team and thought it would be okay so this is down to him and his management, the comment in the statement that riders did not want to come to Newcastle was solely down to him if you believe what you hear and that riders did not want to ride for him there was a lot of good will at the end of the season with moves afoot for people to come in and run the club but that has all been lost, I just hope those people would still be prepared to get involved and try and get it resurrected for this season

Again, grant chose to put this cheap team together..if you go back and read messaged from THJ there's numerous evidence of this. Nothing to do with the league set up!!!

Yes but because of his own ineptness. Any previous promoters/promotion have played no part in this closure, just his lack of man management and inability to do the right thing at the right time. It is fair to say he is the worst promoter ever at Newcastle. Sad day given the great effort in 1997 to resurrect the sport by me, George and Peter.

I'm sorry for some of my comments on here the last couple of weeks. As you can imagine this club has been a massive part of my life, my childhood, my teenage years and now my young adult life, like I'm sure it has for many others. I am livid that it is closing and this has been coming for ages. I was so desperate to see change, but it wasn't coming and now it's gone. What a massive shame, I wish every Diamond's fan, old and new, the best of luck for the future, and who knows... Maybe we'll meet again in the future... Wish it had gone differently... A very disappointing ending to a club with such massive history

A fantastic move from Redcar to offer Newcastle fans a last chance to support their side this season on Friday. Any Newcastle fans out there please support this meeting as Redcar are taking a huge financial hit by putting on this meeting. Let’s get behind the Diamonds for one last time this season and show the club does have a long term future.

Takeaway RD... Every time...

I think you are right to worry.Sheffield have a strong top 5,and 2 reserves who should do well around our place.We have a young reserve who will be very nervous I would have thought,is this his debut in the PL,cant think if he has had a meeting for anyone else.Plus R/R for Niels is likely as you said there are no suitable guests for him. If we are to lose this one I think it will be game over, as I can't see us picking up enough points away from home. What we really need is the ref to keep an eye on Ellis with his rollers,Holder to pick up a toe infection,Musielak held at customs,Cook to forget his bikes and Mountain to be stuck on one for the night.Then I fancy our chances

NKI recalled= NKI/ Kings Lynn were (i`m assuming) told no more you know the rules - Poland + 2 NOT 3. NKI had a choice drop Denmark or Sweden or UK and this is the outcome.

Of course it has a lot to do with not having a competitive team .it stands to reason that the crowds are low due to that hence bringing less income in. People tend to blame UK speedway in general for a demise of a club but most of the time it's just a crap ran business.

Nobody likes to see a speedway club close down. I’ve seen my club go to the wall twice and it ain’t nice. It was always gonna be a struggle with the team that was put together. Just not competitive

Sadly predictable. Doesn't help anybody. The current promotion has lurched from one disaster to the next. Be it lack of due diligence prior to the purchase, regularly putting together sub-standard teams, lack of engagement with the supporter base and frequent threats of closure. When people have offered help, it would appear their offers have been ignored. So when the real crunch comes then the promotion were on their own. Sounds to me like they are cutting their losses now, so that the money in the club is not lost. They aren't going bankrupt, they are liquidating the company in essence. Which means they will get some of their money back once the liquidators have done their work. Given some of the appalling decisions made by the BSPA in the last ten years I can't really see speedway generating enough interest in this country for Newcastle Speedway to make a comeback in the near future. Given that the SGP series is popular and with Eurosport having league racing on the TV, the conditions for success are better than they have ever been, yet the controlling body still can't get the setup correct. This sorry debacle is a sad reflection on the sport in this country.

Reuben brothers? They own Brough Park

Lots claiming Granty ruined the club but would the club have not folded without his involvement anyway?

Sad to see another team go, feels like every time there is some good news about an attempt to bring a team back we get hit with a a couple of lots of bad news. No I am not the typical speedway fan & I am asking a lot of questions about the sport, but to me its part of a rich motorsport heritage in this country and as a motorsport fan I don't want to see any part of that lost. Feel for all the loyal fans & volunteers, the riders and don't forget the youngsters in the Sapphires.

Hope the riders can get fixed up now. Starkey I'd guess be a man in demand, big stormy looks on a good average too.

No, you and Etonian bleet on about the set up, too many heat leaders in one team etc etc then jump on this as evidence to your claim. End of the day starting team was what 3/4 points below limit with a rider with an average over 8. On this occasion a cheap team was built relatively close to the points limit so why would management committee refuse them entry? Until they got a decent track were holding their own at home which really was all that was asked for. It's a sad day for the sport, one of its oldest, traditional clubs that's ran concurrently for my lifetime is potentially gone. It's no day for point scoring IMO

Out of the frying pan in to another frying pan? Are you putting yourself forward? unfortunately those in power would much rather mastermind their own demise than do anything for the greater good

Agreed. Can't really give English much credit if you believe the way it was left, but at least there was an element of reliability most seasons (and some decent sides). Grant has been about as successful as a promoter as he was as a rider. Far too pigheaded to make it work.

Feel really sorry for Bickley, surely they must have known this was on the cards when they signed him. Talk about getting kicked when you are down

Shame his bikes don’t match his talent.

looks amazing!! Does anyone know what the capacity for the stadium is going to be? I hope Edinburgh find a new home I'd hope that their local council are cooperative in helping them find a new home or land to build on.

Poole are doing exactly that......

Another problem with Glasgow moving up is the fixed race nights, we have a lot of kids that come on Friday night with their parents , that would be a huge loss racing on a Monday or Thursday

It failed. Thanks to vested self-interest the "top" clubs didn't release riders for those brave enough to move "up". Consequently, there were uncompetitive teams, and the whole point of the amalgamated league was wasted.

Horrible day for everyone involved with Newcastle speedway. Can only hope there is someone out there willing to take over for next season. Not a great situation for British Speedway as we could now be looking at Newcastle, Birmingham and ourselves not coming to tapes next season. The revival of Oxford this season and hopefully Workington (Northside) next season gives us hope for the future but it isn’t looking good with more tracks / teams being closed down.

It was a disgraceful move from Doyle and sticking his fingers up at fans at the end not classy.

Spose it was only a matter of time, just shows how well the previous promotors did in hindsight .

I actually wouldn't now make any changes..they need to work with Palin and they've all shown improvement in speed in the last 2 meetings which have been superb entertainment. Basso will be on the world stage soon so make the most of watching him here.

Riders will go wherever there's a guarantee of being paid.

Certainly was an eventful meeting with a section of the 3rd and 4th bends causing three crashes, Palm Tofts crash was unrelated and then we had Doyle fence Basso as he was passing him. Nevertheless some good racing overall even if we did have a few fence repair hold ups. Ipswich’s chance of getting anything from the match pretty much went with Barker getting hurt but Panthers were good value for their win. I saw the comment about Doyle apologising to Basso in the pits but that’s not the first time this year that Doyle has rode like that and their is no getting away from it, Doyle is a dirty rider, hard riding I can live with and blocking someone is fair enough but Doyle well overstepped the mark last night and rightly got excluded.

Given the events at Newcastle over the last couple of years this comes as little surprise sadly. Rob Grant clearly didn't do his homework while taking over the club then found himself way over his head. There were/are several offers of help but they seem to fallen on deaf ears so the club have went from one disaster to another. At the bottom of this of course is the fans who now have lost their speedway and they have my upmost sympathy, slim chance of finding a new owner but a slim chance is better than no chance at all.

Never was the tune another one bites the dust so perfect for this sport With the current model of domestic speedway there are too many clubs running so who is next? Feel for the fans only, if the sport as a whole was run differently clubs like Newcastle could survive

From last week. Cam in white, looks bang on it..

Wednesday night at Poole, with a live stream available for the other five thousand who would have gone if it were on a Saturday ...